Microsoft Surface for SM Instruments?

bgdgzbgdgz
edited April 2015 in General Questions
I'm wondering whether the Microsoft Surface 3 (or Pro) is capable of functioning as a virtual instrument device for live performance. In particular I would like to run the SampleModelling instruments, (Flute, Clarinet, Trumpet) controlled via an EWI-5000.



The main points on my mind are:



1) Can the Surface's CPU handle the processing demands of the SM instruments?



2) How to get MIDI from the EWI into the Surface?



3) What is the quality of the audio output on the Surface?



Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? After searching, I find that there's no mention of the Surface on this forum. Is that an indication of it's unsuitability for music work?

Comments

  • KobirKobir
    edited 10:05AM
    CPU is powerful enough on pro 3, but if you expect to use battery, it is not recommended. My team at work did extensive testing of surface pro 3 and in order to have decent battery life it requires very strict power management. This type of power management on Windows cause issues with realtime music, so you are likely to either have reliability issues or battery life less than two hours. Regarding audio quality, I haven't tested it.



    In general, doing realtime music on Windows is not easy out of box and typically requires some tweaking of Windows services and drivers until you get reliable performance. If you are not a tecky person or have patient for trial and error, MacBook Air or Pro would usually work well out of box with MainStage. I have a very reliable ultra thin Windows laptop, but it took me almost 3 months to get it to be reliable...that is why the replacement is going to be a mac :)
  • MSchnellMSchnell
    edited 10:05AM
    I would never rely on a consumer-grade device powered by Li-Ion Batteries.



    Theses are known for both gradual as sudden loss of capacity after a rather short time of reliability.



    Electric and hybrid cars use a very sophisticated ware-out managements for their batteries e.g. strictly avoiding rather low and rather high filling state, rapid loading and unloading etc.



    In our company when planning a battery powered device, we decided to use lead-batteries, but those of course are much more heavy and big - and a lot cheaper.



    -Michael
  • bgdgzbgdgz
    edited 10:05AM
    Thanks Kobir, that's exactly what I was interested in knowing.



    bruno




    Kobir wrote: CPU is powerful enough on pro 3, but if you expect to use battery, it is not recommended. My team at work did extensive testing of surface pro 3 and in order to have decent battery life it requires very strict power management. This type of power management on Windows cause issues with realtime music, so you are likely to either have reliability issues or battery life less than two hours. Regarding audio quality, I haven't tested it.



    In general, doing realtime music on Windows is not easy out of box and typically requires some tweaking of Windows services and drivers until you get reliable performance. If you are not a tecky person or have patient for trial and error, MacBook Air or Pro would usually work well out of box with MainStage. I have a very reliable ultra thin Windows laptop, but it took me almost 3 months to get it to be reliable...that is why the replacement is going to be a mac :)

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